


Cookies and Slideshows

by stellaisnotamermaid



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-01-23 12:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18549766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellaisnotamermaid/pseuds/stellaisnotamermaid
Summary: Will is the best at Italian in his class—so what better to do than flirt with his crush in Italian, when his crush doesn't even take the class? Except, his crush is Nico di Angelo, who lived in Venice up until a year ago... not that Will knows this about him.





	1. Will

**Author's Note:**

> Italian is in italics (it's written as English because I don't speak Italian), as well as French (which is actually French—French translations are in the end notes), the school has 4 classes a day, 4 different classes a semester. Quarterlies take place of midterms/finals, and they are once a quarter. This takes place in the fourth quarter of school because I made the classes like this so that I wouldn't have to come up with 8 classes and then I forgot so I mentioned quarterlies in one class just happening.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER IS WILL'S PERSPECTIVE ON THE STORY AND NICO'S PERSPECTIVE IS THE SECOND CHAPTER WHICH IS A LOT BETTER SO IT WOULD PROBABLY BE BETTER TO READ THAT FIRST. I JUST DON'T FEEL LIKE CHANGING EVERYTHING. ENJOY.  
> wow this is loud and i apologize.  
> also ya girl can't type. i literally typed "caio".

Will walked into his Italian class and got out his journal. He'd been taking Italian for three and a half years at this point, and was learning it outside of school, so he'd gotten pretty good at the language.

 

He could hold full conversations with people, which was extremely useful for pranking Lou Ellen, since she took French.

 

His teacher passed out their quarterly assessments from the last class, and Will breathed a sigh of relief upon getting his—he'd gotten a 100%.

 

He wasn't as good at reading and writing, since his father taught him verbal, and he was only learning written in school.

 

"Our class average is, unfortunately, a 63%." His teacher began. "We're going to go over the answers, so please pay attention. Afterwards, we're doing a post-test review so that I can see what we need to work on. Only one person got a 100% on the test, so good job, Will."

 

Everybody glanced at him, not at all surprised. His dad was fluent in the language and had helped him learn it since he was little, after all. This was the only class that people raced to be his partner—he always partnered up with his friend, Cecil, though.

 

Will went on his phone while they were reviewing the test since he didn't need to check his work at all, and he managed to finish the post-test in five minutes.

 

In second period, Will saw somebody that he'd never seen before. There was a guy standing awkwardly in the doorway.

 

He had dark hair that contrasted his extremely pale olive skin, and was wearing a poofy aviator jacket. Will had to basically pull his eyes away from him.

 

His teacher, Mrs. Erva, noticed the kid and waved him over to her desk. "You must be Nico di Angelo."

 

He nodded jerkily, arms crossed over his chest in a defensive position.

 

"Okay! You can sit next to Will Solace—Will, raise your hand—for now. Do you have a probelm with sitting in the back?"

 

Nico shook his head, then headed over to where Will was sitting. He glanced at Will after sitting down, studying him, then laid his head on the desk and focused on the board.

 

 _di Angelo,_ Will thought. _He definitely looks like an angel._

 

"Today, we're going to start our next project, which will make up 10% of your grade next quarter. It's a partner project—" Groans echoed throughout the classroom. _"But,_  you can choose your partner. No groups of three, since we have an even amount of people in our class."

 

Will glanced at his friends Lou Ellen and Cecil, but they were already having a silent conversation by the time he found them. He turned towards the new kid.

 

"Did you want to be my partner?"

 

Nico looked at him for a second, then shrugged. "Why not?"

 

...Okay, then. He probably could have cared a little more, but that was fine. If they ended up not liking each other, they could just not partner up in the future.

 

"Cecil is going to hand out your packets; please don't loose these. If you do lose it, there will be a .pdf on the Google Classroom, but I will not print another for you. Please grab a laptop from the cart so that you can start working on it."

 

Nico took out a pen and started to write his name on his paper.

 

"Do you want me to get the laptops?" Will stood up.

 

"Uh, sure." Nico barely looked at him. Will felt a twinge in his chest, but headed to the front of the classroom to grab them both a laptop. He was probably just awkward around new people.

 

When he came back to their seats, Nico was skimming through the last page of the packet. Will handed him a laptop, so Nico thanked him.

 

"Do you have an email so that I can share the google slides with you?"

 

"Yeah, I'll type it. It's kind of long."

 

Will slid his laptop over to Nico, then clicked the share button. Nico typed in his email, then handed it back to Will. His pale face looked a bit more red than normal, and Will glanced at the email. _t_ _he_ghost_king@gmail.com_. He'd definitely seen (read: had) weirder emails than that, so why was Nico flushed?

 

"Which prompt did you want to follow? We could go with the one where Macbeth is in control of his fate, Lady Macbeth is in control of his fate, or the Weïrd Sisters are in control of his fate."

 

×××

 

"Hey, Dad!"

 

"Hey, Will. How was your day?"

 

"Pretty good! I got a 100% on my Italian quarterly. I don't think that my partner for our English project likes me, though."

 

"Oh. That's a shame. Maybe it's just because he's new? Good job in Italian, though!"

 

"Thanks! And maybe, I can try to get him to hang out with me and see if it changes his mind or something."

 

×××

 

By the time that Will got to second period, the rest of the class was already there. He slid into his seat and greeted Nico, out of breath.

 

"Hey, Solace. I got your laptop."

 

"Oh! Thanks." Remembering his conversation with his father, he added, "I was wondering if you wanted to sit with my friends and I at lunch today?"

 

"Sure."

 

"Cool!" Will got put to text his dad.

 

**Dad**

**anyway, we're going to hang out at lunch today!!!**

**i think he was just nervous bc new school**

**good 4 u!!!!**

 

×××

 

Will led Nico to the cafeteria, where they sat down at one of the corner tables. Lou Ellen and Cecil were already there, and they seemed confused at Nico's presence.

 

Will introduced them to Nico, then got out his lunch.

 

"Nice to meet you!" Lou Ellen said. "What school did you go to before?"

 

"Oh, it was this place in Nevada. Lotus High, or something. I was only there for a quarter and I don't really remember it for some reason."

 

"That's cool. How are you adjusting to New York?"

 

"It's cool. A lot colder, and not as dry. I'm farther from my little sister, Hazel, who lives in California, though."

 

"That's what your accent was!" Will exclaimed. Nico glanced at him, mirth dancing across his face.

 

"Wait, why don't you live with your sister?" Cecil asked, then hissed in pain when Will kicked him in the leg.

 

"Oh, she's my half sister."

 

"Oh, that's cool."

 

×××

 

They didn't have enough class time to finish their project, so Nico invited Will over to finish it. Will had barely had to say anything about his siblings—and his dad, blasting music—before Nico paled and agreed that they should hang out at his house.

 

Since it was the weekend, Will had plenty of time to get ready. Normally, he struggled to wake up before sunrise, which was necessary in order to get to school on time.

 

He triple checked his appearance before leaving the house, sweating from nerves.

 

He knocked on the door and saw Nico's face almost immediately.

 

" _Ciao!"_ Nico said. Will could have  _sworn_ that Nico didn't take Italian, but it was possible that he was one of those people that just randomly said "Hola" to people.

 

"Hey! Wait, do you take Italian? I thought that Lou Ellen said you were in her French class."

 

"No; I'm in French." Nico laughed. The sound made Will smile, and he felt his heart pounding in his chest.

 

"Oh, haha. I'm in Italian."

 

"I know, sunshine. You complain about the inadequacy of your class every day."

 

"Oh. True, death boy."

 

"... Death boy?"

 

"Yeah! 'Cause you're so pale and you were laughing over how Macbeth died."

 

"Still—Death boy?" 

 

"Yeah." Will shrugged. He hoped that he hadn't made Nico uncomfortable with giving him a nickname—especially one so morbid.

 

"Um, anyway, did you want to come in?"

 

"Oh! Yeah. Um, we just have to do the counterclaim and the design, right?"

 

"Yeah, I think so."

 

Nico led Will to the office and logged onto the computer. "My sister made cookies, so after I set this up, I can go get them. We also made lemonade yesterday, if you want some of that."

 

"Sure, that sounds great!" Will smiled. He glanced around at the photos on the desk. "Oh my gods, you've been to Rome?"

 

"Yeah, when I was eight or something."

 

"That's so cool! I've always wanted to go to Italy."

 

"I miss it, to be honest."

 

 _"I'm jealous."_ Will said.

 

Nico looked at him for a second, then said that he was going to get cookies. Will drifted around the room looking at the décor when a voice made him jump.

 

"You speak Italian?"

 

Will twirled around to face the speaker—Nico's older sister, probably. "Uh, yeah. I'm not like, 100% fluent, but I can get around easily."

 

_"Cool."_

 

"Oh, you do too?"

 

"Yeah. Anyway, have fun."

 

"Um, thanks."

 

Bianca smiled, then left the room. Will heard Nico talking with Bianca quietly before he came into the room, but he couldn't make out a single word.

 

Their conversation ended with Bianca laughing and Nico groaning.

 

"I got the cookies," Nico announced. "And some lemonade."

 

"Thanks!" Will grabbed the cup that Nico handed him, and pushed his chair out of the way.

 

They finished roughly forty minutes later, so they went into the living room to play Mario Kart.

 

Will played as Rosalina, and Nico was Boo. Will got 12th every time but the last, where he got 1st. Nico just gaped at him in shock.

 

 _"Oh my gods, you're so cute,"_ Will laughed.

 

"What?"

 

"Uh, I said 'Take that.'"

 

"Oh, okay."

 

×××

 

Their class was so large that presentations had to be split into two days, so Will and Nico were going on Tuesday instead of Monday.

 

Will was saying stuff in Italian to Cecil, and Lou Ellen was getting increasingly irritated that she couldn't understand him.

 

It seemed like a great plan until Nico and Lou Ellen started having a full out conversation in French. He had no idea what they were saying, and it was grating on his nerves.

 

Lou Ellen laughed, and Will's curiosity won.

 

"What's so funny?" Will asked.

 

"Nothing," Nico cut in. "She just has a twisted sense of humor. Ignore her."

 

"Okay?"

 

Cecil glanced at Nico, and seemed to somehow realize what was happening. He started laughing, too.

 

Nico buried his face in his hands while Will just looked around confused.

 

×××

 

Will could barely pay attention to the presentations because of how badly Nico was fidgeting. He wished that there was something he could do to calm him down, but couldn't think of anything. Soon, everybody else had gone and Mrs. Erva called on them.

 

Nico logged onto her computer so that they could bring their presentation up on the board.

 

Nico was supposed to read the last slide, but his tongue got tied on 'Macduff' and he just sighed.

 

 _"I give up,"_ he muttered.

 

Will finished the slide for him, then seemed to realize what Nico had said. "What?"

 

The bell rang before he could reply.

 

"Um, nothing, bye." Nico grabbed his backpack and darted out of the door.

 

Nico had just spoken Italian. That meant that he'd been able to understand him  _this entire time,_ and he'd been playing dumb. For what? Had he been teasing him? That didn't seem like something he would do, but apparently Will didn't even know him.

 

Will walked to lunch in a daze, and when he got there he just sat down without eating anything.

 

A few minutes later, Lou Ellen pulled a complaining Cecil to his feet and dragged him away. Will looked up and his eyes landed on Nico.

 

 _"Ciao."_ Nico said.

 

 _"Ciao,"_ Will replied, all of his normal sunshiney energy gone. _"Why didn't you tell me?"_

 

_"I don't—I'm not sure. You never asked me if I spoke Italian, and it was… funny, I guess. To see how long it took you to realize. Then you—then you started… saying stuff… and I… couldn't. You seemed so confident speaking Italian, and I couldn't ruin that. I'm sorry. Also, I'm awkward."_

 

"Oh."

 

"And—" Nico sighed and moved a tiny bit closer to Will. "For what it's worth, _I like you, too."_

 

 _"Oh,"_ Will said, and turned to face Nico. "I'm sorry that I doubted you."

 

"It's fine. I probably would have reacted a lot worse."

 

"... We should talk about this."

 

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "Not right now, though. Did you want to go to the coffee shop with me after school?"

 

"Sure." Will agreed.

 

"Okay," Nico said, then gently leaned against Will. So many questions were spinning around Will's head, but he didn't ask them.

 

They had time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this didn't turn out how i wanted it to and there were so many glitches so the decent version of Will's perspective got deleted so I'm sorry that you got this crummy one. anyway, if it was okay, kudos is appreciated.


	2. Nico

Nico set himself awkwardly by the door. The class was mostly empty still, and he didn't know where he could and couldn't sit.

 

A boy with a mop of bright blonde hair and tan skin caught his eye, and Nico noticed that he'd been staring. Skeletal butterflies danced around his stomach, but he forced the feeling away. The kid could have been staring at him for any number of reasons, most of which weren't good.

 

The teacher—Mrs. Erva, according to the schedule that he'd gotten from the office that morning—waved him over to her desk. "You must be Nico di Angelo."

 

Nico nodded, then crossed his arms over his chest. It felt like the entire classroom was staring at him, and it made his skin crawl. He hated being the new student—he'd been it just last quarter when he moved to Nevada from Venice, and he wasn't eager to be it again.

 

"Okay! You can sit next to Will Solace—Will, raise your hand—for now. Do you have a probelm with sitting in the back?"

 

Nico shook his head, then headed over to where Will was sitting. He glanced at Will after sitting down, trying to figure out whether he would be nice or not, then laid his head on the desk and focused on the board.

 

 

"Today, we're going to start our next project, which will make up 10% of your grade next quarter. It's a partner project—" Groans echoed throughout the classroom.  _"But,_  you can choose your partner. No groups of three since we have an even amount of people in our class."

 

Nico sighed. He didn't know anybody, so he'd probably end up getting partnered with some kid who didn't care about their grades and would make him do all of the work.

 

"Did you want to be my partner?"

 

Nico looked at Will for a second, then shrugged. "Why not?"

 

He seemed like he was going to be nice, at least. It was worth a shot.

 

"Cecil is going to hand out your packets; please don't lose it. If you do lose it, there will be a .pdf on the Google Classroom, but I will not print another for you. If you just want a digital copy, you can do that, too. Please grab a laptop from the cart so that you can start working on it."

 

Nico took out a pen and started to write his name on his paper.

 

"Do you want me to get the laptops?" Will asking, standing up.

 

"Uh, sure." Nico glanced at him, then turned back to the paper. Will had decided to grab their laptops, which probably meant that he was going to try on their project. He still wasn't sure if he'd actually be a decent partner, though.

 

He was skimming through the rubric when Will came back to their desks with two laptops.

 

"Here, Nico. Do you have an email so that I can share the google slides with you?"

 

"Yeah, I'll type it. It's kind of long."

 

Will set his laptop down on Nico's desk and hit the 'share' button. Nico typed his email— _the_ghost_king@gmail.com_ —and felt his face warm. He'd forgotten to create a more school-apropriate email, and was stuck with the one he'd made when he was ten.

 

"Which prompt did you want to follow? We could go with the one where Macbeth is in control of his fate, Lady Macbeth is in control of his fate, or the Weïrd Sisters are in control of his fate."

 

×××

 

_"Hey, Bianca!"_

 

_"Hey, Nico. How was your day?"_

_"It was good. The French teacher is nice, and there was this nice kid in my English class. We're working on a project together. Biology was fun; gym was boring."_

 

_"What's his name?"_

 

_"Will. We might have to get together out of school to work on our project."_

 

_"Oh? Will you two be coming here?"_

 

 _"Maybe. We haven't talked about it,"_ Nico said, struggling to control a blush. Based off of Bianca's tone, he knew that she was teasing him.

 

×××

 

Nico walked into French and headed straight to the back of the classroom, where he had sat yesterday.  
  
   
  
" _Bonjour_ , class." Madame Amora walked to the front of the classroom.  
  
   
  
_"Bonjour, madame."_  
  
   
  
"Your warm up is on the board, you have five minutes to complete it."  
  
   
  
Nico was in French because Piper had forced him to take it—he already knew three of the other languages that the school was teaching (Greek, Latin, and, of course, Italian), anyway, so there wasn't really that much a choice.  
  
   
  
Not to mention the fact that Piper could be very convincing.  
  
   
  
She'd helped him catch up to where she assumed the class would be, and French was honestly quite similar to Italian, so he had no problem completing the warm up.  
  
   
  
The school didn't have French 1, so he had to take a test in order to skip to French 2. It would have been so much less work if he had followed Leo's instructions to take Spanish, since there were more teachers for that course and therefore a Spanish 1.  
  
   
  
_"Maintenant,_ you have a pre-test on the placement of adjectives so that I know what I need to teach you."  
  
   
  
_"Madame?"_ A girl asked. _"Puis-je aller aux toilettes après l'examen?"_  
  
   
  
_"Oui, Stephanie."_  
  
   
  
Some kid that Nico didn't know passed out the pre-tests, and Madame Amora returned to her desk.  
  
   
  
"You have… _dix minutes_ to take your pre-tests."

 

×××

 

Nico grabbed two laptops from the cart as soon as he walked into second period. Mrs. Erva had said that she wanted them to start as soon as they got there so that they had as much time as possible.

 

Nico looked up and saw Will enter the room, so he greeted him and returned a smile.

 

"Here's your laptop."

 

"Oh! Thanks." Will said. "I was wondering if you wanted to sit with my friends and I at lunch today? It's Cecil, the guy over there that's trying to see how long he can balance the pencil on his nose, and Lou Ellen, the girl that's timing him."

 

"Sure. Wait—they won't mind, right? I don't want to intrude."

 

"Yeah, they won't mind." Will reassured, then pulled out his phone.

 

×××

 

Will led Nico to one of the tables in the corner of the cafeteria. When they got there, Cecil and Lou Ellen were already sitting down.

 

"Hey, Will. Who's this?" Cecil moved so that there was room for four people on the bench.

 

"Oh, this is Nico. He's my partner for the English project."

 

"You're in my French class, right?" Lou Ellen asked.

 

"I think so—first period with Madame Amora?"

 

"Yep!" She replied. It's nice to meet you! What school did you go to before?"

 

"Oh, it was this place in Nevada. Lotus High, or something. I was only there for a quarter and I don't really remember it for some reason."

 

"That's cool. How are you adjusting to New York?"

 

"It's cool. A lot colder, and not as dry. I'm farther from my little sister, Hazel, who lives in California, though."

 

"That's what your accent was!" Will exclaimed. Nico just looked at him in amusement. "It seemed really familiar, but I couldn't place it."

 

"Wait, why don't you live with your sister?" Cecil asked, then hissed in pain and glared at Will, who was still shining as bright as the sun and looked innocent.

 

"Oh, she's my half sister."

 

"Oh, that's cool."

 

×××

 

They didn't have enough class time to finish their project, so Nico invited Will over to finish it. Apparently, Will had a couple younger siblings who may be loud—and his father blasted music all the time.

 

_"Bianca! Will is coming over to finish our project."_

 

_"Okay, Nico. Make sure that you clean up the office. Did you want me to make cookies or something?"_

 

"Sure! Let me just check that he doesn't have any allergies or anything."

 

**Will Solace**

**Do you have any allergies/dietary restrictions?**

**i dont have any allergies but im vegetarian**

**Okay. My sister is baking.**

**wait i thought she lived in california**

**Not Hazel, my big sister, Bianca.**

**ohhh okay**

**I'm on my way :)**

 

_"He's vegetarian."_

 

_"Okay!"_

 

Nico had just finished cleaning up the office when the door bell rang.

 

_"He's here!"_

 

Nico ran up to the door and completely forgot how to speak English when he saw Will.

 

Will Solace was hanging out with him outside of school and he looked like he'd dressed up—which, it was probably the fact that he had more time in the morning to get ready, but still! Skeletal butterflies filled Nico's stomach.

 

"Uh, ciao."

 

"Hey! Wait, do you take Italian? I thought that Lou Ellen said you were in her French class."

 

"No; I'm in French." Nico laughed. It was hilarious how Will hadn't guessed that he was Italian yet.

 

"Oh, haha. I'm in Italian."

 

"I know, sunshine. You complain about the inadequacy of your class every day."

 

"Oh. True, death boy."

 

"... Death boy?"

 

"Yeah! 'Cause you're so pale and you were laughing over the irony of Macbeth's death."

 

"Still—Death boy?" The fact that Will had a nickname for him was so endearing, but it was really weird.

 

"Yeah." Will shrugged.

 

"Um, anyway, did you want to come in?"

 

"Oh! Yeah. Um, we just have to do the counterclaim and the design, right?"

 

"Yeah, I think so."

 

Nico led Will to the office and logged onto the computer. "My sister made cookies, so after I set this up, I can go get them. We also made lemonade yesterday, if you want some of that."

 

"Sure, that sounds great!" Will smiled. He glanced around at the photos on the desk. "Oh my gods, you've been to Rome?"

 

"Yeah, when I was eight or something."

 

"That's so cool! I've always wanted to go to Italy."

 

"I miss it, to be honest."

 

 _"I'm jealous."_ Will said.

 

Nico glanced at him. He was surprised that he hadn't replied to Will in Italian yet—he normally code switched, and just speaking one language was weird, especially when it was a different langauge than the one he was being spoken to in.

 

When he came back, Bianca was leaving the room. Nico narrowed his eyes. "What were you doing?"

 

"Just talking to him. He seriously doesn't know that we're Italian?"

 

Nico shook his head. "I'm a mess."

 

Bianca smiled, then left.

 

"I got the cookies," Nico announced, walking back into the office. "And some lemonade."

 

"Thanks!" Will grabbed the cup that Nico handed him, and pushed his chair out of the way.

 

They finished roughly forty minutes later, so they went into the living room to play Mario Kart.

 

Will played as Rosalina, and Nico was Boo. Will got 12th every time but the last, where he got 1st. Nico just gaped at him in shock.

 

 _"Oh my gods you're so cute,"_ Will laughed.

 

"What?"

 

"Uh, I said 'Take that.'"

 

"Oh, okay."

 

×××

 

"He totally likes you back," Bianca laughed when Nico stumbled down to the kitchen the morning after Will had left.  
  
   
  
"Who?" Nico yawned. He'd stayed up until 4a.m. texting Will.  
  
   
  
Bianca just blinked at him and left the room.  
  
   
  
×××

 

Their class was so large that presentations had to be split into two days, so Will and Nico were going on Tuesday instead of Monday.

 

Will was saying stuff in Italian to Cecil, and Lou Ellen was getting increasingly irritated that she couldn't understand him.

 

_"Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?"_

 

 _"... Il parle de moi…"_ Nico replied.

 

Lou Ellen just laughed.

 

_"Il a dit que j'suis mignon, et je sais pas quoi faire."_

 

_"Il ne sait pas encore que tu parles italien?"_

 

_"... Non."_

 

Lou Ellen laughed again.

 

"What's so funny?" Will asked.

 

"Nothing," Nico cut in before Lou Ellen could reply. "She just has a twisted sense of humor. Ignore her."

 

"Okay?"

 

Cecil glanced at Nico, and seemed to somehow realize what was happening. He started laughing, too.

 

Will looked at him imploringly, but Cecil just shook his head.

 

×××

 

Will glanced at Nico, who was fidgeting nervously. Soon, everybody else had gone and Mrs. Erva called on them.

 

Nico logged onto her computer so that they could bring their presentation up on the board.

 

Nico was supposed to read the last slide, but his tongue got tied on 'Macduff' and he just sighed.

 

 _"I give up,"_ he muttered.

 

Will finished the slide for him, then seemed to realize what Nico had said. "What?"

 

The bell rang before he could reply.

 

"Um, nothing, bye." Nico grabbed his backpack and darted out of the door.

  
**Lou Ellen**

  
**Help me.**

  
**what just happened????**

**I may have spoken Italian in front of Will.**

**he's just sitting here shell-shocked.**

**That… doesn't sound good.**

**he'll be fine.**  
  
**OHHH**

**… Yeah.**

**haha.**  
  
**where are you?**

 **In the French classroom.**  
  
**I panicked.**

**okay well text him???**

**I can't.**  
  
**He probably hates me.**

**will doesn't hate anybody???**

**I know. He's literal sunshine. Maybe he should, though.**

**istg.**  
  
  
Nico sighed and slammed his head against the desk.  
  
  
"Nico? _Comment ça-va?"_ Madame Amora asked.  
  
  
_"Mal."_ Nico groaned. _"J'aime ce—cette personne et je ne lui ai jamais dit que je parle italien._ They've been flirting with me for a couple days in Italian and I was too awkward to say anything, and I just said something in Italian to them. So, uh, yeah."  
  
  
"Well, how did they react?"  
  
  
_"Je sais pas._ The bell rang, so I left."  
  
  
"Well, maybe you should talk to them. They're probably just as embarrassed as you are."  
  
  
"Okay… I guess I'll go talk to them."  
  
  
"Good luck!" Madame Amora said.  
  
  
Nico waved and headed to the cafeteria.  
  
  
When he got there, he just sat down in his regular seat.  
  
  
Lou Ellen pulled a complaining Cecil to his feet and dragged him away.

 

 _"Ciao."_ Nico said.

 

 _"Ciao,"_ Will replied, all of his normal sunshiney energy gone.  _"Why didn't you tell me?"_

 

_"I don't—I'm not sure. You never asked me if I spoke Italian, and it was… funny, I guess. To see how long it took you to realize. Then you—then you started… saying stuff… and I… couldn't. You seemed so confident speaking Italian, and I couldn't ruin that. I'm sorry. Also, I'm awkward."_

 

"Oh."

 

"And—" Nico moved a tiny bit closer to Will. "For what it's worth,  _I like you, too."_

 

 _"Oh,"_ Will said, and turned to face Nico. "I'm sorry that I doubted you."

 

"It's fine. I probably would have reacted a lot worse."

 

"... We should talk about this."

 

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "Not right now, though. Did you want to go to the coffee shop with me after school?"

 

"Sure." Will agreed, voice shaking.

 

"Okay," Nico said, then gently leaned his head on Will's shoulder. Will relaxed into him, and Nico finally let himself breathe.

 

They had time.

**Author's Note:**

> Bonjour=good day/hello
> 
> Madame=Mrs
> 
> Maintenant=now
> 
> Puis-je aller aux toilettes après l'examen=can I go to the bathroom after the test?
> 
> Dix minutes=ten minutes
> 
> Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?= What's he saying?
> 
> Il parle de moi=he's talking about me
> 
> Il a dit que je suis mignon, et je ne sais pas quoi faire=He's saying that I'm cute, and I don't know what to do.
> 
> Il ne sait pas encore que tu parles italien?=He still doesn't know that you speak Italian?
> 
> Non=No
> 
> Comment ça-va=how are you (com mon sa va)
> 
> J'aime ce—cette personne et je ne lui ai jamais dit que je parle italien=I like this (masc)—this (fem) person (which is feminine) and I never told them that I speak Italian.
> 
> Je sais pas=I don't know (not grammatically incorrect, as several people who don't know informal french have commented asking about this; in verbal french, you can drop the «ne» that goes between «je» and «sais»


End file.
